Budget padding Crisis: Dogara’s loyalists confirm lobby to sign impeachment notice

A notable number of lawmakers from the All Progressive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday confirmed plot to lobby them into appending signature for the impeachment of Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his cabinet.

The lawmakers told our Correspondent after a series of meetings held within the National Assembly complex, Abuja, where they assess the lingering crisis thrown up by Abdulmumin Jibrin, who was sacked as Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations last week.

Our Correspondent who visited Jibrin’s office located at Room 1.05 observed that the security operatives from Department of State Security (DSS) and Sergeant-at-Arms have vacated his office following the formal petition submitted to the DSS headquarters and other anti-corruption agencies on Monday.

A member of APC from Edo state who spoke with our correspondent but does not want his name in print, confirmed the move.

He however vowed not to be coerced by any group or individual by compromising his integrity on the platter of politics.

Timothy Golu, chairman House Committee on National Assembly Budget and Research who debunked the report on the impeachment move, challenges the Transparency Group to make public the names and signatures of the 113 members collects so far, stresimg that about 300 members from various parties are in solidarity with Speaker Dogara.

He however urged Jibrin to substantiate the allegation on how the Speaker and other principal officers padded the budget by N40 billion and N284 billion allegedly inserted by 10 Committee Chairmen.

In a swift response to the series of meetings held on the crises, Jibrin on Tuesday expressed pessimism that remarkable number of lawmakers of All Progressives Congress (APC) extraction will support his call for the resignation of Speaker Yakubu Dogara and three other principal officers he accused of padding the 2016 budget.

BusinessDay gathered that lawmakers from various political parties across the North West geopolitical region who attended the meeting held at the National Assembly complex, expressed displeasure over the plot by Jibrin to destroy the Institution after failing to justify the trust reposed in him as the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Our correspondent also saw a handful of lawmakers belonging to Speaker Dogara’s camp, converged at the office of the Deputy Leader’s office at the early hours of Wednesday where they held brief meeting.

Jibrin on his Twitter handle, @AbdulAbmj explained that he was preparing to honour the invitation his party, adding that he hadn’t been to the Wuse 2 headquarters of the ruling party because he the party wasn’t able to reach him before yesterday.

He said: “The party had stated that it has made several attempt to reach me through calls and text messages. I did not receive any, even if I did, schedules shuttling between security and anti corruption agencies to provide support and evidence against Speaker Yakubu Dogara and 9 others.

“It would have been very difficult for me to attend because of attempt by quartet of Speaker Dogara and others who were determined to kidnap me, until few days when my lawyers requested and got maximum protection for me from the DSS and police.

“I’m confident that the party will do the rightful thing by throwing its weight to support our resolve to wipe out corruption in the House and direct Speaker Dogara, Dep Lasun, Whip Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor to reconvene the house immediately and step down.”

He also denied being asked to face the party’s disciplinary committee, saying, “the letter did not in anyway indicate it is a disciplinary committee. And I have responded that I will attend the meeting despite my tight schedules.”

While reacting to the APC leadership’s invitation, Jibrin who dismissed the report that he was summoned to appear before the disciplinary committee of the party.

The lawmaker who confirmed the receipt of the APC invitation in respect of the current crisis in the House today by 2pm at the party’s Secretariat, however explained that “the letter did not in anyway indicate it is a disciplinary committee. And I have responded that I will attend the meeting despite my tight schedules shuttling between security and anti corruption agencies to provide support and evidence against Speaker Yakubu Dogara and 9 others.

“The Party had stated that it has made several attempt to reach me through calls and text messages. I did not receive any, even if I did, it would have been very difficult for me to attend because of the attempt by the quartet of Speaker Dogara and others who were determined to abduct or kidnap me until few days when my lawyers requested and got maximum protection for me from the DSS and police.

“I am confident that the party will do the rightful thing by throwing its weight to support our resolve to wipe out corrupt people and institutional corruption in the House and prevail or direct Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, Whip Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor to reconvene the house immediately and Step aside to face their imminent prosecution and save the party and our dear country further embarrassment.

In response to Adams Jagaba’s allegation, Jibrin who described him as a “very corrupt, incompetent and bigot” accused him of explain his role in the subsidy scandal.

“Rather than respond to allegations against him or wait for his imminent invitation and arrest from the anti corruption agencies, he resorted to a rehearsal of their usual lines of lies to blackmail and tarnish my image.
“I therefore wish to state as follow, that Hon Jagaba Adams is obviously panicking even before the allegations I made on him (allegation against him is not what he thinks)  because he will now face the same anti graft agencies like EFCC  that he terrorized in the past for corrupt and selfish reasons.

“The same Jagaba Adams who as chair, Financial Crime Committee was said to have been handed the $500,000 allegedly received by Farouk from Otedola.

“The money has since disappeared! A dishonorable member, a shame to the institution and one of such members that President Obasanjo is referring to when he says there are rogues and thieves in the House who came to Abuja on ‘Molue’.

“I advise Hon Jagaba Adams rather than waste his time in fruitless efforts to discredit me, he should start preparing for a long life in jail,” Jibrin stated in the tweet message monitored by our Correspondent.